Asil Nadir at home in his luxury villa in northern Cyprus in 1993.
Photograph: Geoff Wilkinson/Rex Features

For more than 17 years, the satellite dishes topping his high-walled luxury villa in northern Cyprus have been Asil Nadir's only connection with the outside world.

Following the collapse of Polly Peck, his fruit-to-electronics empire, nearly two decades ago, the fugitive businessman has lived as a virtual recluse, cut off from the increasingly globalised market, in a state recognised only by Turkey. Now those days are over.

As the Turkish Cypriot prepared to return to Britain, in the wake of last month's landmark decision by an Old Bailey judge to grant him bail, he declared himself delighted at the prospect of standing trial and "clearing his name" of 66 counts of theft totalling £34m.

"It's good news. It's a very good first step," the 69-year-old told the Times. Nadir, who has long argued there was an abuse of process in the case brought against him by the Serious Fraud Office added: "I've been battling for this for all these years. It's what I've been fighting for."

But the tycoon's return will not be the champagne and caviar send-off that preceded his late-night flight from a Dorset airfield when he fled the UK in 1993.

For the generous Tory party donor who was once ranked Britain's 36th richest man, England this time around will entail electronic tagging, weekly appearances at a police station and surrender of any document that might enable him to travel. His first trial hearing has been set for 3 September.

But despite the indignity of such constraints, it will be a small price to pay.

Unable to travel for fear of being deported to Britain – the mini-state of northern Cyprus is not bound by extradition treaty to the UK – Nadir has instead lived in gilded confinement, constantly overlooked by armed bodyguards in a territory barely the size of Wales.

Although there have been regular visits by powerful friends – including influential Tories who are believed to have played a role in persuading the SFO to lift its objection to granting Nadir bail – there has also been loneliness.

Isolated and marooned, heading business ventures that, with the exception of his Kibris Media Group, have been far from successful, the years in exile have robbed him of his looks, spirit and health.

Announcing his determination to return to Britain in an interview with the Guardian nearly 10 years after arriving in his native Cyprus, he said "physical exhaustion" had prompted his decision to flee. "When you have some of the most eminent physicians and psychiatrists saying you are in danger of imminent death you have to listen to them," he said. "For a long time I have not been well."

Increasingly, he has also been afflicted by bouts of "terrible homesickness".

The father of four, who married a Turkish Cypriot business school graduate 43 years his junior in 2005, grew up in Cyprus when it was a British colony. He has said that nostalgia for the UK has also contributed to his unwavering legal battle to return once the threat of arrest was dropped and bail granted.

"I miss the countryside and ordinary British way of life," he told the Guardian. "I feel very disappointed that a country I loved so much, that I have done so much for, should taint its image by treating me in the manner that it has. I was prosecuted before there was any evidence, before a proper investigation was even conducted."

Run-ins with authorities in the Turkish Cypriot enclave may also have played a role in his decision to return to Britain.

Last year, Kibris Media Group was hit by a £4m tax demand. "Asil always has good relations with the powers that be here, but the tax business depressed him greatly and has, I know, played a role in his desire to go back," said a friend. "Clearing his name is his priority now but … the time has really come when he also wants to be close to his family and friends in Britain."